Procrastination

It's that time of the summer when I see that summer is coming to an end and the school year is quickly approaching... what's the one thing I want to do right now to prepare... Nothing! I get really motivated in the beginning of the summer when I'm still in the "work" mode, but as summer wears on I slowly start to relax and enjoy my time off. It is hard to believe that I'll be back at work in 3.5 weeks! So much to do!

Today I worked on 6+1 Traits for school. I didn't really know much more than the basics so I grabbed a book and got down to work. I'm trying hard to focus on one task at a time, but I get fidgety and am off doing something else before I realize what I'm doing :) I organized the stuff that will go back to school, cleaned up my desk - trying to get organized to actually be able to work in the office, and got some reading done on the writing traits. I even made a to do list of the things in order that I need to focus on to keep me working in the next few weeks. It's a rainy day here for the first time in a while and all I feel like doing is curling up with a book and taking a nap! I think I need to set a schedule for myself so that I can get some of these things done and still enjoy the last part of summer vacation.

I also made a yummy tea, pineapple, banana smoothie this morning and love the recipe! Thanks Lipton! Take one cup of tea (1-2 bags steeped) and let cool, add 1 cup crushed pineapple, a bit of honey, a banana, and a few ice cubes and you have a yummy smoothie. It made three servings so I froze the other two for yummy snacks later! Delicious!

Now back to work...

Newest Addition to Our Family!

That's right, we have an addition! Actually two new additions! Kent and I are officially proud to announce... our new bikes! What were you thinking :) Kent has been on a road bike kick for a while and has a 30 year old hand me down road bike. I have a basic Huffy style crossover and couldn't keep up with Kent on the basic rides around the neighborhood. So after two days of trying several bikes, stores, and companies, we both went with Specialized.

I got the 2012 Dolce Compact, a beautiful new release in brushed black and blue! It's awesome. I tried the Giant, and the Trek bikes and they didn't compare. The Giant was a very comfortable bike but the grips for me were uncomfortable. The Trek bike on the other hand had great

grips but was more uncomfortable than the Giant. Finally I tried the Specialized bike and didn't look back. It was an all around good feeling and comfort while riding.

Kent got the 2011 Secteur Sport Compact in the gray and black. Kent was really torn between the Allez and the Secteur, but it came down to comfort on the Secteur. He also tried the Giant and Trek brands. We were originally both set on the Trek brand because of their Big Sale this weekend, but after several rides were both very pleased with the Specialized brand.

For our first ride, we toured around the neighborhood as it is rainy today. Hopefully it will clear up so we can test ride the awesomeness that is our bikes!

My first new house list!

So I'm kinda a list person - I love to make them and pretend that I am organized (if only!). Here is our first official list of projects/to do list for our house: (note they are in no particular order)

1. Master Closet - organize

2. Master Bedroom - find a bed set including night stand tables, and a dresser

3. Kitchen - organize pantry and rethink some locations of kitchen tools etc

4. Living Room - find a coffee table and maybe a cute table for behind the couch? add some cute decorations for above the mantle, add a picture on the large wall

5. Mud Room - find cute baskets for the top shelf, find placemat/trays for dirty shoes below, organize the two closets

6. 1/2 Bath - Find a mirror that fits above the sink, maybe add a picture on the other wall?

7. Front Hall - Find a rug for the area, find an entrance table add some pictures

8. Office - find a desk? add bookshelves? add some filing cabinets? really not sure yet

9. Bedroom 1 - move dresser from master closet to bedroom?

10. Bedroom 2 - find a duvet that matches the room

11. Bedroom 3/teacher room - organize stuff, get closet organizers to help with clutter

12. Upstairs bathroom - get a rug for below the sinks, add some cute decorations

13. Upstairs hallway - add some pictures to the wall

14. Upstairs closet - organize with all linens

15. Basement finished side - no plans yet, more to come

16. Basement unfinished side - add laundry organization and place to fold laundry, organize storage

17. Garage - organize with workbench, tool storage, tall lockable cabinet for chemicals, maybe bike storage, recycling storage and set up

So it's a daunting list, but you have to start somewhere! It will be fun to begin to cross these things off the list as we go (the master closet is again being avoided! we'll save that for last!)

Feeling Hot Hot Hot!

Please tell me that I'm not the only one singing that song (all day long) today! It is hot! Just taking the dog outside (or opening the door to let her go out) it brutal! At least there is a wonderful breeze.

Today I kinda relaxed most of the day - it is summer vacation after all :) Yesterday was the first day I hosted book club, and we had 8 girls over for wine and appetizers. I made a wonderful summer drink by combining sparkling Riesling, lemonade, and a raspberry for a very refreshing drink. We also had the usual red and white wines available, but the lemonade was the biggest hit! For food I made a fruit pizza, some wonderful bacon cheesy dip with crackers, and the good ol' stand by veggie tray. The cheese dip and fruit pizza were a big hit. And of course after all of that hard work - I forgot to take pictures (D'oh!)

I did get some more work on the upstairs "library/teacher" room. Still not sure how it is going to turn out, as I'm really not sure what I want it to be yet, but currently I have three bookshelves set up with most of my books. (They really don't all fit on the three - I have a book problem!) I need to get a shelf for the closet, there is a place for one above the hanger bar, but no shelf. I think that will help with organization. Then I can add some cute storage containers, some baskets, etc and get that room in tip top shape. Sometimes I think about selling/donating the teacher stuff as it is taking up so much room, but I just can't seem to give it up just yet. I do love online teaching, so maybe after a few years, I'll be ready to move on :) For now, I will find some space for it and finally get another room done!

Avoiding the Closet

So it's official, I have tried to do just about anything in this house, except work on our master closet. There is just something about it that makes my skin crawl. Don't get me wrong it's a great closet, and there is lots of space, it's just an overwhelming project and I don't really know how to get started.

One of the problems in the closet are the shelves. It sounds great to have three book case like shelves in the closet, however they are narrow and don't really fit clothes really well. I made one just for shoes - which is awesome, but it really takes up a lot of clothes space. Hmmm... I think I am going to try some of the things like tank tops and other small accessories and clothing on the shelves, but then where to move the clothes that are currently on the shelves? There really isn't that much hanging room in the closet, because we currently have a dresser in there too, until we find a bedroom set that we like (and that matches) :). So today I worked around the house doing anything but the closet!

I picked up the kitchen, took the plants outside for some wonderful sunshine, did some laundry, hung a picture frame, hung an organizer by the garage door, set up the office, more laundry, aired out the chairs - they are enjoying the sunshine too and some fresh air will do them good before I add fabric... I did a billion little projects all to avoid that crazy closet! Well at least it is making me be productive in some of the other projects around the house :) I'm off to set up our recycling boxes in the garage!

Sanding Chairs!

On Friday, I began collecting supplies to upgrade our new dining chairs. I got awesome fabric, some sand paper, primer, paint, and a polyurethane stain to go over all of it. We love the fabric, so I spent all of Friday removing the old fabric and letting the cushions air out. (Which they are still doing, they were really smelly from being in a barn). I also went over the chairs with the 120 grit sand paper that I bought. It went really well on the first chair, and then got progressively worse. Mind you I haven't sanded anything since middle school shop class so I didn't really know what I was doing or what "sanded" chairs should look like. I knew that I had to remove the varnish that was on the chairs to be able to paint them again.

It didn't really work. The sand paper was shot after one chair and didn't do much for the other 4. I bought more sand paper, and a great hand tool that fits the sand paper and was back to sanding today. It's a terrible job! It was pushing 90 degrees outside and I was in the garage sanding away. Each chair really needed it's own piece of sand paper, and I think I finally got it to the point where they are ready for the primer! Finally! Painting is actually something I'm good at and very familiar with (thanks Dad!). Unfortunately, it's 90+ degrees and unbelievably humid outside, so that means no painting. Hoping for some cool weather so that I can paint these chairs.

I can do this!

My day began with the "what was I thinking! I can't reupholster chairs!". I quickly searched how to do it, and review wonderful instructions from YHL, I was back to the I can do it feeling and thought about that silly story "I think I can I think I can..."

So, my adventure with our new chairs begins. I took off to Hobby Lobby today to find some awesome fabric for our chairs. Success! I found this wonderful blue pattern that will look great on the chairs! Score! Plus they were on sale - still expensive but they were on sale!

Then I was off to Lowes for some primer, paint, a sander, and some painting tools. Again success! I found a great paint color that matched our kitchen and the new fabric. Man! I'm was on a roll!

Once back home, I decided to see what I had with these chairs. I grabbed a screwdriver and took of the seat. Wow! Easy again! Four screws later I had the top off and was looking at the cushion. YHL recommends reupholstering right over the old stuff, but our chairs had this band along the side that we didn't want to keep, plus they had a smell so I figured out with the old :) I began to pull out the staples. It was a long and tedious job, but I removed the five old fabric covers and was ready to try the new ones.

I centered the fabric, and put one staple one the four sides to even it all out. Then I stapled like a mad woman. It took two attempts with the corners. But it was really just like wrapping a present! I did it! The cushion looks great! I did one and stopped because the smell was still getting through the fabric, so I will let the others air our uncovered for a day (or two). Next project... the chairs themselves...

I'm off to a wedding tomorrow, and then the Harry Potter movie on Sunday! (I solemnly swear I am up to no good... and I can't wait!) More chair projects next week.

Crazy Cooking!

Today, three of my co-workers and great friends came over to prepare the main course for 22 dishes each! Yeah, it's as crazy as it sounds! We spent 9 hours prepping, cooking, assembling, and cleaning up the kitchen for the meals! There are some places that you can go to make the freezer meals, but we decided to try it at home with the four of us.

Yesterday, Dana and I went shopping for all of the groceries. After spending $150 for all of the shared supplies and about $150 each on meat, we had spent almost 2 hours at Meijer. I'm a shopper, but that was a long time at Meijer! Luckily the supplies were split between the four of us, so it ended up being less that $200 dollars for al 22 meals. Plus they made 4 servings, so for Kent and I we broke up many of the meal and have more meals (I stopped counting after a few hours).

It was a very long day, and my feet and back hurt. However, my freezer is stocked with tons of great main dishes that I will only have to add sides too. It's great for when I go back to work in about a month. Awesome! Now the real question, would I do it again? I think so, it was tons of fun with the girls and I did make tons of great recipes that I wouldn't have tried otherwise, like lamb in the crock-pot! Hopefully they will all be delicious! This is the messy kitchen, I'm a little neurotic when it comes to cleaning, so it drove me nuts all day to have my kitchen looking like this! It's finally better now. I still need to mop the floors and then I am going to clean the granite and seal it tomorrow. Not bad for 9 hours!

New Chairs!

We found dining chairs! My sister (and almost everyone we know) has been looking out for chairs for us. She found a set of 8 chairs in great condition in Ohio... bummer. However my sister, now lives in Ohio, so she offered to pick them up! Yes! After talking with the buyer, we set on a great price of $250 considering I will have to reupholster them. Then we found out it was about an hour from my sister's house, and she can't fit 8 chairs in her car. Boo! So I agreed to meet her yesterday in Ohio to pick them up. Thank you Craigslist!

We met this wonderful older lady at her house (my sister swore we were going to be murdered by the 'craigslist killer'). The table and chairs were in great condition and we quickly loaded the chairs into our two cars. There was a quick panic because the chairs looked really short because of how tall the backs are. I worried that they wouldn't work, but after driving almost 3 hours, I wasn't going home empty handed.

After we picked them up, my sis and I had dinner and stopped at a local Good Will for some more shopping :) We found a cute little pitcher with strips! After dinner at Applebees, I headed home for another 2.5 hours with 5 of the chairs in my car (my sis had the other 3, which means another trip to Ohio this summer). I finally got home at 9:30 and was exhausted. Luckily, the chairs fit the table perfectly and look great in the dining room! Thanks again sis!

Storage Garage Woes

So we were really excited to be done with our storage garage once we moved into Blue. However, once we had moved in, we didn't really want to continue moving our stuff, so we temporarily forgot about it and figured we had paid for this month of July anyways, we should get our stuff out, but no rush. Then today, we remembered that it is an automatic payment that comes out on the 15th for the next month. Ahh! That means we have until Friday to clean out the garage and be done with it. So Kent and I made a mad dash after dinner to the garage. I had made several trips already and more than half of the stuff was already at home. We still had my desk, our patio table and a few more boxes in the back that I couldn't reach.

We got a good load in and then were too tired to make another trip. I'll go again tomorrow to finish all the boxes, and then Kent and I will go on Thursday to get the last bit of the desk (which is too heavy for one person). Then we will officially be all moved into Blue and not be paying for more unnecessary storage.

Once home, Kent and I decided we had time to assemble the patio furniture and set it up on the deck. A quick job turned into a nightmare. At first we couldn't find the zip lock bag of nuts and bolts that goes with the table. I knew I saw it when we were moving, but couldn't remember where. After a quick search, we found it and started to piece it together. After a failed attempt at tightening the bolts without any wrenches, we found the allen wrench and were well on our way to finish. By the time the table was all set up we were to tired to even put the chairs out. Oh well more tomorrow.

Dinner Party!

So with no dining room chairs, we are hosting our first dinner party in the new house! Our two good friends are coming over tonight for dinner. (Something we try to do each month and alternate houses!) I can't seem to find the cloth napkins that match our place mats, but other than that, the table is set!

We will start off with an appetizer of bread and olive oil dipping sauces. Yum Yum! I do love carbs :) After that our main course will be chicken halves with rosemary and juniper berries - which give the chicken a wonderful earthy taste - we will also have potatoes and asparagus as sides. For dessert, I am trying a blueberry buckle. Mine looked a little thicker than the wonderful pictures in the recipe book, but here's hoping it turns out yummy. If you add enough sugar, blueberries, and cinnamon it can't be bad. Right?

So no major work on the house today, I had to run to Meijer twice - I always forget something and today it was the list! Go figure. So after two trips, baking a buckle, and a quick clean up of the house for the dinner tonight, I'm exhausted. Oh I did start Jillian Michael's Ripped in 30 days - really I'm laughing, ripped in 30 sounds a bit optimistic for me :) But it was fun for the first day, and I can do anything for 30 days. Not like that failed go at P90X... seriously who has that much time in the day to work out and then to maintain that after you have lost the weight and gotten into shape. Not me! At least it's something!

Wonderful Weekend

It is so nice to be (almost) moved in. Kent and I spent our weekend enjoying our new house and being in awe over it actually being ours! Friday was great, we had our first overnight guests. My BFF and her family stayed over. It was great to catch up and wonderful to host people over to our house and not feel cramped. At the old house we had three bedrooms, but only one bathroom, so getting ready was a mad dash. Now with the two full bathrooms, it's not a problem. We also had a large brunch on Saturday and it was great to have people in the kitchen and not feel so cramped. Having an island is great. It separates the people from where I am cooking, without having to trip over people to get anything done. Plus we have gotten out all of our wonderful gifts from our wedding and it has really helped in entertaining!

After our friends left, we enjoyed taking a nap! They have a 10 month old and I was so worn out I slept for almost another 3 hours! Then Kent and I ran to the store to pick up some food for this week. We enjoyed cooking out on the deck for the first time and had some shish kabobs with corn on the cob. We then relaxed and ignored the boxes in the garage and still in the storage garage and watched a movie. It was wonderful to spend the weekend enjoying our house for really the first time since we've moved in!

Today, Kent has to run into work. I am enjoying this not working thing, and sticking to a full weekend at home without unpacking anything! Catching up on some Scrubs episode reruns! More this week!

Close Call

Phew! Well the rental was no big deal. Apparently, all it needs is a splash guard. The water from the tub was following the wall and down onto the floor where it was slowly seeping into the basement. Add one splash guard and presto chango! No problem anymore! Hurray for cheap fixes!

Today I am getting ready for our first overnight guests in the house! Hurray! My BFF (no I'm not too old to have a BFF) is coming over with her husband and daughter and I can't wait! They are heading back to DC tomorrow and get to stay the night here! In other words... quick hide the stuff that is still laying on the table - did you know how much mail you get in the few weeks that you move... it's crazy! and it's all over the house! Quick finish the laundry so the linen closet is actually filled with linens not "to be washed" items :) Quick use the Swiffer - thank goodness for the Swiffer mop! and then quick mop - thank goodness for the Shark! I wouldn't know what to do without these wonderful products on the crazy floors. Not to mention having a golden retriever makes the dust bunnies appear faster. Today I seriously found a dog hair ball the size of a small cat! Love you Petoskey! But seriously she is beautiful:

Making Progress

Slowly but surely, I am making progress... and wow! It feels great! It has been so nice being able to have the summer off - one of the many perks of being a teacher! Today I worked on another coat on the painting for our bedroom - I am really not creative, but I got a great idea from YoungHouseLove about creating a simple painting. I love it! It needs a few more coats, so I am slowly adding to it.

I also cleaned the upstairs bathroom in prep for our first overnight guests tomorrow! My best friend from DC is coming with her 10 month old daughter and husband! I can't wait! I haven't seen them in months! The bathroom was a bit scary - the previous owners had three boys and it showed! Not that it was that bad, but it needed a lot of work. I also discovered a retched smell coming from the thrown... YUCK! After some careful inspection with rubber gloves (wish I had a ten foot pole!) I found that it was the toilet bowl cleaner that you put in the tank. It was a dark blue gel like substance at the bottom of the tank. So I figured some flushing would do the trick and reduce the smell (thinking the smell builds up when the water just sits there). No luck. I had to reach into the toilet tank and scrub the blue gunk to get it to go away. Finally - Success! No more blue gunk and with a few air fresheners up there the smell is finally going away! GROSS! Who would put something so stinky into the toilet!

Finally, I am already working on a repair for the rental. The tenets called to say that the bathroom shower was leaking into the basement. GREAT! So we contacted our wonderful real estate agent (who has several rentals too) and asked for a recommendation. So in an hour I am off to hear the news (cross your fingers it's cheap!). Never a dull day when moving and renting!

Weeds, weeds, and more weeds

I spent the morning avoiding the task at hand today... weeding! I hate it! I don't mind being outside, but there is just something about pulling weeds in the dirt on your hands and knees that is just not appealing to me. Instead I ran around town running errands. I picked up some cards for upcoming birthdays, I went to Home Goods... and didn't find one thing I had to have! I don't think that has ever happened - I must be in rare form today! Those weeds just seem to throw everything off. I even took Kent out for lunch! The lawn guys came to turn on the sprinklers, which was a very big surprise to Kent and I, we left for the weekend with beautiful green grass, and came home to very yellow dried grass. We quickly realized in the summer sun, we needed to turn on the sprinklers and get that going this year. They were quick, but the system is very loud and the meter is in the basement below our bedroom - which means no more "sleeping in" this summer for me. 8 am those puppies go off and I will definitely be awake once they start. So after all the procrastinating I could do, I finally attended to the weeds.

I seriously had a thistle plant that was as tall as me! I couldn't believe it. I'm slowly making progress, but after one hour of weeding, it was really all I could take. I will try again later after some more fun activities... like arranging my books. More on that later!